Wow, it’s been a great year for YA horror! I feel like we are seeing much more diversity than in the past, which is great, and it isn’t just surface: it’s essential to many of these stories. I read more than I got reviewed for Monster Librarian, and there were definitely other great reads (Angel Falls by David Surface and Julia Rust, Bitter by Akwake Emezi, How to Succeed at Witchcraft by Aislinn Brophy, Prelude to Lost Souls by Helene Dunbar, and My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham to name a few) but these are the ones that stand out from the rest.
Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow:
This is outstanding social horror. Morrow wrote that she initially intended this for an adult market but it hits the mark as a YA crossover.
Cherish is a Black girl adopted by progressive, wealthy, privileged white parents. Farrah is the only other Black girl at the private school they attend.. They have been best friends since fourth grade. Farrah’s father has lost his job and she is staying with Cherish’s family while her parents sell their house and look for new jobs. Farrah is in an antagonistic relationship with her mother, who she also identifies with. There is something wrong with Farrah, and something odd about the situation with Cherish’s family. All of them seem to be individually following their own, different narratives but it is hard to spot because Farrah is the point of view character and she is very focused on controlling situations to her advantage, so she doesn’t notice it in the other characters. There are a few scenes with disturbing body horror and several near-drownings that made this hard to read, but it is really a compelling, dark, and chilling book.
Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph Wright
This follows trans boy Benji through his flight from the evangelical doomsday cult the Angels, who have infected him with a bioweapon that will eventually turn him into a genocidal monster. Benji finds support through a group of queer teens surviving in the ruins of their community center and they come up with a plan to destroy the Angels and prevent another apocalypse.
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany L. Jackson
Carrie was my first King book, and since I read it as a teenage girl, probably the most impactful. So I was curious to see the differences between the original and this race-bent version. The bones of the original are there but Jackson has updated the story, added depth to many characters, and brought issues of race and class to the fore.
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
Mars, a nonbinary teen, decides to go to the summer camp their sister attended after she dies attempting to murder Mars, and join their sister’s cabin, The Honeys, known for living in a cabin near the beehives where they are responsible for tending the bees. But something sinister is going on under the surface. This one is so creepy, and original. You’ll never want to go near bees again.
The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew
Wow, this is a wild ride. If it doesn’t make the Stoker shortlist it will be an absolute shame.
Delaney is Deaf (with a cochlear implant) and has brittle bones. She has always seen and heard shadows (her deafness plays a role in this). Now she has been admitted to Godbole College. Students at Godbole all have some kind of occult ability: most have died and come back.
Several months into the year, a missing Godbole student, Nate Schiller, is discovered severely hurt in Chicago. Unknown to Lane, Nate had died and was haunting her, but has found a way back: he is now possessed by a dark godlike force that is destroying his mind and body. When Lane visits it senses a more acceptable vessel. And then the story goes into truly strange and scary territory.
These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall.
Helen Vaughan and her mother left Harrow, the Vaughan family estate, when Helen was seven, and return for the first time for her grandfather’s funeral. Her grandfather leaves Harrow to her, if she will agree to be its mistress, live there for a year, and go through a ritual at the end to see if the house accepts her. Basically all of her family except her cousins Desmond and Celia are terrible people who clearly do not have her best interests at heart. The house itself is designed to seem to be a spiral labyrinth, or trap, for a dark force, and Helen finds herself wandering for hours, hearing voices tell her to “find the heart of Harrow.” The descriptions of the house are amazing, in some ways reminding me of Hill House. When her cousins leave she begins a cautious friendship with Bryony Locke, the Harrow Witch, who wants to release it. She and Bryony find a journal in cipher which Helen gets Desmond to crack, which tells a disturbing story about the founder of the Vaughan family and the gruesome way the family has kept the dark god trapped. It is foreshadowed, but the story completely flips in an unexpected and satisfying way.
Parts of the story, especially names, are inspired by Arthur Machen’s story The Great God Pan. Women in that story have very little agency, and Marshall gives it back in the form and actions of Helen Vaughan in this book. I think this is the best of Marshall’s books I’ve read to date and will be surprised if it isn’t on the Stoker shortlist.
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